Finding the Persona Non Grata (Web Design and Usability)
Persona Non Grata - In the context of website usability - a term I use to describe users I do not want on a website.
In the course of a web design (or redesign) project, you will often encounter a process by which the design or usability company create personas (or personae).
A persona is a fictitious archetypal user, built to represent the users of a website: their needs, drivers and characteristics - to help you understand who you are building for. Put simply it is a member of your target audience, which you create to help the team understand who they are designing for.
In a project I've been working on recently, I came across a need that I haven't had before: to define not just personas, but also a persona non grata. I call it that because in my mind it represents the people you do not want on your site, but of whom you are getting plenty.
Owners of most websites don't mind if they get lots of irrelevant users. Their traffic is up, management is happy, and the focus is often on conversion rates and increasing the site's relevance to the people that matter. It follows that the models and personas they use relate to the people they want, rather than those they don't.
But if, for example, your site is very niche, and you get a lot of misguided traffic that puts a burden on your customer support team, or on your bandwidth, you sometimes need to define who these misguided users are, and how you can channel them elsewhere. One part of the solution would be to design the site well for its desired users, but that may not be enough. You may find that the only way to fend off the unwanted traffic is to use a similar process to the persona process - but one that defines the personae non gratae and figures out ways to stop them from misunderstanding your site, or deflecting and redirecting them elsewhere.
More methodology to follow. I wanted to get the definition and explanation out of the way first.
Recommended Usability Companies in the UK
As part of a project I am working on at the moment, I was looking for a usability company to provide me with support, working alongside a design partner. I needed usability design support for navigation components, usability testing for wireframe stages and usability testing for prototypes.
I posted the question on several forums, and I thought it would be worth summarising the responses I got, for future reference. I provide usability consultancy myself, but to meet project timelines it sometimes makes sense to get someone in to do this piece, and of course to tackle the overheads of usability testing and mouse and eye-tracking.
I’m ordering the list with usability companies recommended by people I know at the top, followed by the rest.
UK Usability Companies Recommended by People I Know
1. Flow Interactive
In their own words: Flow specialises in user-centred design, customer experience strategy, user research and usability testing. We help organisations gain a competitive advantage by delivering products and services that are useful, delightful and easy to use… Results that support design and strategy: Collecting information is only half the process. We deliver actionable design and strategy recommendations based on our findings. We can go on to deliver design concepts or product strategy roadmaps… We work with organisations of all sizes, including the BBC, Microsoft, Moo Print and Skype.
2. Bunny Foot
In their own words: We help you to optimise the way you communicate with your customers... to make sure they do more of what you want. We are psychologists & human-computer interface experts - we cover Web, software, mobiles, iTV, print, games - we now do an increasing amount of advertising work too… Founded in 1999, in the early days of usability, we were the first consultancy to offer professional accessibility services and the first to offer eyetracking as standard. We still concentrate on our core competence of user centred design and usability, but now also offer specialist eyetracking services to ad agencies and for market research.We have offices in Oxford, Edinburgh and London [contacts and directions] - we feel it is important to have nationwide reach and not be biased towards London… We work with leading names from both the public and private sectors - recently Microsoft, BOC, Mini, BA, Yell, McAfee, PowerGen, DWP, COI, NHS, TSO, VisitLondon...
3. Experience Solutions
In their own words: Our customer experience research and consultancy services help you improve your products and services. Your customers want to reach their goals quickly and easily, that's where we come in. With our help, you'll make their experience seamless and enjoyable so they'll come back for more and bring their friends, resulting in a bigger market share… Our directors, Ali Carmichael and Damian Rees have 18 years experience in delivering fantastic customer experiences for major UK clients, including Marks and Spencer, Argos, BBC, RNLI, and Motorola. They formed the company over a few Drams in the seaside town of Bournemouth, on the south coast of the UK.
Usability Companies Recommended by Others
4. Etre
In their own words: We design, manage and deliver profitable user experiences. We're different from other companies you've worked with. Here's why: We're specialists not generalists Unlike consultancies, agencies and other "one-stop shops", we focus on a few things and do them extremely well. In those areas, we've gained deep experience and developed proven solutions that we can use to maximise the return on your web project… Our consultants have worked on projects for Eurostar, Transport for London, Microsoft, HSBC, American Express, Vodafone, Muller Dairies, Deutsche Bank, The Law Society of England and Wales
5. User Vision
In their own words: User Vision provides services throughout the UK and Europe and was established in 2000. We are a consultancy dedicated to improving the user experience of your website, software or product. We offer a wide range of services including consulting, testing, reviewing, evaluation and training to help clients produce better products that customers find easier to use. We take a straightforward, practical approach to user needs analysis, problem solving and usability testing, leading to effective design solutions. Whether we become involved at the design stage, or after a system has been in use for some time, we never lose sight of the user’s needs. Have worked with the likes of BBC, Out-law, HSBC, Dell, Ikea and Emirates Airlines.
6. User Focus
In their own words: Userfocus is a consultancy and training company that helps organisations reduce costs and increase profits by helping create great customer experiences. Our clients are typically blue-chip organisations like Orange, RBS and Hewlett-Packard who want help improving the usability of their web site, intranet or handheld gadget. Unlike competitor companies, our consultants are experimental psychologists, which means we provide rigorous insights into audience behaviour.
7. Webcredible
In their own words: Based in London, UK, Webcredible offers a range of usability & accessibility services for websites, intranets, mobile devices & applications. We research, design & build interfaces to support user requirements & business goals. Our user research services will help you precisely identify the needs of your users and show you how to improve your website, intranet or application. Our user-centered design process will structure and plan out an information architecture for you, optimised around users achieving your goals. Have worked with the likes of: Admiral Insurance, T-mobile, WHO, Yamaha, Lambeth Council.
It is worth noting that my requirement for this project was a local usability consultancy in the UK, so off-shoring was off the menu this time – although I do recognise that in some instances off-shoring can work quite well for this sort of thing. I also ruled out on this occasion agencies for whom usability was not the mainstay of their work (for example, some very good market research agencies also run usability testing – but I was looking for those purely in the business of website usability).
Finally – for those companies not recommended by people I know, I checked out their own corporate websites first. If their site doesn’t display excellent usability principles in action, then I won’t mention them here. You’d be amazed at how people try to sell you usability expertise but their own site is a mess: things that look like links aren’t clickable, or the information is so badly organised, you wonder what they’re doing in this space.
Oh, and for some of the ones who didn't make the list: just because you are a usability company... It doesn't mean your site has to be a boring pile of monotone ASCII. Know what I’m saying?
Design Agency Wisdom – How to Fail a Client Pitch in Three Minutes!
I got a call from a web design agency yesterday. The lady on the other end was cold calling the company I am consulting to, and somehow got through to me.
Here is a summary of the interaction:
'I'm calling from agency X', she said, 'and I was wondering if you were planning any web design projects in the near future?'
Now you see, I am this cold caller's dream target: I am actually looking into a design project for my client, and I was willing to hear her out.
'Yes,' I said, 'you actually called at an opportune moment. I'm looking for agencies to pre-qualify for a tender, do you guys design as well as code?'
'Erm, yes, we do both,' she said. She mutters some client names that I don't recognise and can't remember.
'Great! How big is your agency, how many people work for it?'
'I don't know exactly, in the 20's,' she said.
'OK, and what's the split between technical and non-technical at your agency?'
'erm, I don't know, I only started two weeks ago. I'm just... I can arrange a call for you with someone to discuss the detail...'
At this point I stop asking questions, she's obviously wasting my time. Why would I want to arrange another call with someone from a company I know nothing about, who has just cold called me with no further information?
'I can send you some info,' she offers, 'what's your email address?'
So I give her my email address, but on reflection she didn't verify it with me, and she obviously didn't catch it. I never got that email.
And here's the thing: I understand that the agency put an intern or rookie on cold-calling duty and that's entirely not her fault, but if you are out to catch a client - make sure the person on first-contact duty is prepared for the call that will actually get you what you want. If she could have answered my questions knowledgably, and talked me through some good portfolio examples, I would at least have considered her agency.
Now, but for this entry, I would have forgotten their name.
Update: Five days later I did get an email with more details. Five days?